# Asteria Air

> Asteria Air is an aviation holding company. We buy small airlines already flying (Part 135 operators, turboprop or jet, that make money and can grow) and run them better, together, on our own software, AsteriaAtlas. Mission: put the regional skies back together. We are not building an airline. We are building a travel platform with airlines in it.

## What Asteria is doing
- Buying an operating Part 135 air carrier first: its certificate, crews, aircraft and customers. The first target is picked but diligence has not started; it is not named publicly.
- Installing AsteriaAtlas on day one. Atlas replaces 25 to 30 separate airline tools with one system for scheduling, pricing, crew and maintenance. The operator keeps flying.
- Growing with 10 to 30 seat turboprops sold as scheduled public charter under Part 380. Contour flies 30-seat jets as scheduled public charter on a Part 135 certificate.
- Buying more Part 135 operators on the same playbook. About 15 back-office jobs sit at the top once (finance, buying, fuel, marketing, customer service, network planning, revenue management, IT and booking, HR and training, legal, loyalty and charter, traffic rights, leasing). Each carrier keeps its certificate, name, director of maintenance, pilots, safety program, operations control and stations.
- Taking over without a pause: the fleet comes with the operator, crews stay, the certificate stays active, and Atlas runs in parallel with the old systems first; each team moves over when Atlas matches its numbers.
- We build the Part 121 team in parallel from month 6; ready in about three years. The Part 121 fleet is not chosen yet.
- An aviation operating partner covers tech ops, fleet and integration during the build, so we add payroll only when the work is permanent.

## The platform
- Now: Asteria Fly (our operators' flights, sold direct), Atlas (sold to operators like ours), Loyalty, Charter desk, and Airline King, a realistic airline game (launching soon).
- Next (planned, not live): Asteria Move (shuttles, rides, ferries), Asteria Stay (hotels), Asteria Trip (whole trips), Asteria Academy (training), Asteria Capital (leasing).
- Later: cargo, maritime, Atlas for airports, data products, rail and ferry pricing.
- Connections are peer to peer, no hub. ConnectSure: if our flight makes you miss your onward flight, we rebook you and help you get there.

## Why
The founders grew up watching Simmons ("The Michigan Connection"), Midwest Express, Northwest, Mesaba, Comair, AirTran, Silver and others disappear into mergers and bankruptcies. A dozen carriers became four. In Asteria's 14-city map, 83 of 91 city pairs have no real nonstop today, so people drive. A new certificate takes 18 to 24 months; a bought one flies on day one.

## The raise
A seed round funds search and diligence on a live target. When the letter of intent is signed, the balance of the raise follows. Raise announcement coming soon. Join the investor list: https://asteriaair.com/investors.html#investor-list

## People
- Ross Kinkade, Founder and CEO. Second-time founder from the Salesforce world. Urban planner, air service planner at Ricondo & Associates, eight years building enterprise data systems.
- Jonathan Rupp, Co-founder and COO. Embry-Riddle; airport operations at Phoenix and Atlanta; more than 4,000 flight hours; former fleet chief pilot.
- Asteria Partners is the company's air service advisory arm.

## Pages
- [Home](https://asteriaair.com/): the thesis and the founders' story
- [Why](https://asteriaair.com/why.html): why we are buying an airline: consolidation, scarce certificates, the 135, 380, 121 ladder
- [About](https://asteriaair.com/about.html): the airlines we watched go, the holding-company structure, the team
- [Investors](https://asteriaair.com/investors.html): buy, don't build; the 135 to 380 to 121 ladder; questions investors ask
- [The Platform](https://asteriaair.com/platform.html): what is live now, planned next, and later
- [Atlas](https://asteriaair.com/platform.html#atlas): the airline operating system, what it covers, who buys it; the app is at https://asteriaatlas.com
- [The Trip](https://asteriaair.com/trip.html): door to door, ConnectSure, peer-to-peer connections
- [Fleet & Routes](https://asteriaair.com/fleet.html): the fleet ladder and the network
- [Technology](https://asteriaair.com/technology.html): short overview; details on the Atlas page
- [Contact](https://asteriaair.com/contact.html)

## Contact
hello@asteriaair.com · Grand Rapids, Michigan